115 articles from MONDAY 13.9.2021

Jet stream changes could amplify weather extremes by 2060s

New research provides insights into how the position and intensity of the North Atlantic jet stream has changed during the past 1,250 years. The findings suggest that the position of the jet stream could migrate outside of the range of natural variability by as early as the year 2060 under unabated greenhouse gas emissions, with potentially drastic weather-related consequences for societies on...

Public will pay over $500 million a year for hurricane forecast improvements, study finds

A recent survey of people recently affected by hurricanes across four states found that the public is willing to pay more than $500 million a year to improve hurricane forecasts. The study, led by a group of atmospheric scientists and economists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, comes at a time when Hurricane Ida's path caused widespread damage...

Elephant project recordings evoke the rainforest

More than a million hours of sound recordings are available from the Elephant Listening Project (ELP) in the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology—a rainforest residing in the cloud.

Researchers design sensors to rapidly detect plant hormones

Researchers from the Disruptive and Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP) interdisciplinary research group of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT's research enterprise in Singapore, and their local collaborators from Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory (TLL) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), have developed the first-ever nanosensor to...

Success of past rewilding projects shows path to restoring damaged ecosystems

Concept is now widely accepted after initial controversy around projects such as Yellowstone wolves – though opposition remainsScientists raise £15m to bring mammoth back from extinctionThe news that scientists are planning to bring back woolly mammoths to the Arctic tundra, by splicing DNA from Asian elephants with that of their extinct ancestors, has raised a few eyebrows in the world of...

Researchers develop new tool for analyzing large superconducting circuits

New research tools are needed to fully develop quantum computers and advance the field. Now researchers have developed and tested a theoretical tool for analyzing large superconducting circuits. These circuits use superconducting quantum bits, the smallest units of a quantum computer, to store information. Circuit size is important since protection from detrimental noise tends to come at the cost...

Thousands of tiny anchors keep our cells in place – and now we know how

Most of our cells are locked into place with the help of tiny anchors (called 'focal adhesions'). But if a cell morphs into a cancer cell, the chain can break, letting the cancer spread to other parts of the body. A team of scientists have now found the specific protein (or link) in the chain responsible for upholding the connection. The discovery gives scientists new directions for future cancer...

Scientists claim that overeating is not the primary cause of obesity

A perspective article challenges the 'energy balance model,' which says weight gain occurs because individuals consume more energy than they expend. According to the authors, 'conceptualizing obesity as a disorder of energy balance restates a principle of physics without considering the biological mechanisms underlying weight gain.' The authors argue for the 'carbohydrate insulin model,' which...

Researchers identify a novel player in acute myeloid leukemia

A new study has shown that the protein RNF5 plays an unusual role in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Unlike its expected role, marking aberrant proteins for destruction, RNF5 binds with a second cell protein called RBBP4 to control expression of genes implicated in AML. These findings have important implications for improving AML patient outcomes.

One water bucket to find them all: Detecting fish, mammals, and birds from a single sample

In times of exacerbating biodiversity loss, reliable data on species occurrence are essential. Environmental DNA (eDNA) - DNA released from organisms into the water - is increasingly used to detect fishes in biodiversity monitoring campaigns. However, eDNA turns out to be capable of providing much more than fish occurrence data, including information on other vertebrates. A study demonstrates how...

New method enables 3D microscopy of human organs

Researchers have now demonstrated a method by which specific cell types in human organs can be studied with micrometer precision. The method can be used to reveal previously unrecognized alterations in the pancreas, but it can also be used to study other human organs and diseases.

Study describes new procedure that successfully treated patients with congenital intestinal malrotation

A new study has introduced a new surgical procedure to treat both children and adults with congenital intestinal malrotation, an inherited disorder that can cause the intestines to twist. The study also defines the disease presentation in both children and adults, identifies the patients at risk of intestinal loss, and assesses the long-term outcomes after different surgical interventions.

How genetic islands form among marine molluscs

Usually, the individuals of a population of marine species that have the potential to disperse over long distances all share a similar genetic composition. Yet every now and then, at small, localized sites, small groups of genetically different individuals suddenly appear within populations for a short period of time. A new study explains how this chaotic formation of genetic islands can occur in...

Study provides basis to evaluate food subsectors' emissions of three greenhouse gases

A new, location-specific agricultural greenhouse gas emission study is the first to account for net carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions from all subsectors related to food production and consumption. The work could help identify the primary plant- and animal-based food sectors contributing to three major greenhouse gas emissions and allow policymakers to take action to reduce...

Socio-economic status of children can influence microorganisms in their digestive tract

Findings suggest that a family's socio-economic status (SES) may influence children's composition of gut microbiome -- the mix of microscopic organisms within the digestive tract. SES includes economic resources such as education, income and occupation, and are reflected in living conditions, nutrition and psychosocial stress, according to the study, which focused on the education levels of...

Astronomers spot the same supernova three times — and predict a fourth sighting in 16 years

An enormous amount of gravity from a cluster of distant galaxies causes space to curve so much that light from them is bent and emanated our way from numerous directions. This 'gravitational lensing' effect has allowed astronomers to observe the same exploding star in three different places in the heavens. They predict that a fourth image of the same explosion will appear in the sky by 2037. The...